Notorious Hate Group ‘Proud Boys’ Is So Mad That Gay Men Are Taking Over The #ProudBoys Hashtag

There’s nothing funny about Proud Boys, a white nationalist group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has referred to as an “alt-right fight club,” but it is objectively hilarious that the organization is named after a cut song from Disney’s Aladdin. And that the organization is furious that the #ProudBoys hashtag is being co-opted by gay men.

#ProudBoys was trending on Twitter over the weekend, days after Donald Trump refused to condemn the group during a presidential debate with Joe Biden (instead, he told them to “stand back and stand by”). That’s not why the hashtag was being used, however. “The hashtag trended in North America throughout Sunday with gay Twitter users sharing images of themselves, their spouses and other gay people,” according to Forbes.

Star Trek actor George Takei wrote, “Brad and I are #ProudBoys, legally married for 12 years now. And we’re proud of all of the gay folks who have stepped up to reclaim our pride in this campaign. Our community and allies answered hate with love, and what could be better than that,” while Queer Eye‘s Bobby Berk shared a picture with his husband, adding, “Look at these cute lil #ProudBoys (#retweet and make this hashtag about love, not hate).” Even the Canadian Armed Forces in the U.S. got involved.

Naturally, and hilariously, the Proud Boys are not pleased.

The Proud Boys took none too kindly to this, filling up [social media network used by the alt-right] Parler with the type of hateful messages that got them kicked off Twitter in the first place. Much of the action was carried out by the Proud Boys’ official account on the app, which has 60,000 followers. Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys’ chairman, said in a separate Parler post that the left was attempting to turn the group’s name into “a slur” and that the gay pride campaign with #proudboys was an attempt “to drown out the voices of our supporters.” In an effort to ridicule Takei, another Parler post was a meme of the actor holding up the OK sign, a gesture white supremacists use to identify themselves to each other. The image isn’t meant to suggest Takei is a white supremacist. (He’s not.) It’s a statement that the Proud Boys can — and will — use his image to carry out their own propaganda.

Oh my.

Also, the song the “western chauvinists” are named after? It was written by a gay man.

(Via Forbes)